For the Sake of Love: Synod 2016

Anyone who follows this blog knows I’m a pretty verbose individual, so some of you will be happy to know that I intend this to be a short post.

This weekend in Richmond Hill, Ontario (suburbia near Toronto), the Anglican Church is gathering to make a vote on the blessing of same-sex unions. I’ve written about it here before, lots of other people have written about it, and with all the talk and study and prayer and planning, we are now at Ground Zero. This isÂ theÂ issue of General Synod 2016. There is, essentially, no more time.

I want to have more to say. I want to dig deep and find those truest, heart-felt words. But the truth is, even for me, it feels that there is very little left to discuss.

As I think on and pray for General Synod 2016 I keep coming back to something I hear at my church home every week. St. Alban’s has a sung confession song, taken from the Church of the Beloved and composed by Paula Best. These are the words:

Let us see and not destroy. Let us listen. Let us listen.
Let us suspend judgement for the sake of love, for the sake of love.
We need each other more than we need to agree.
Father, Son, Spirit bless us with your love,
with your grace and peace.

All I have left to say is there in that song. To all those who still do not see homosexual union as love, to those who stand against this rising tide of believers who see this as the only way forward…. I stand before you, humbled, saddened. Heart in tatters and holding my torn sackcloth in anguish of what this weekend couldÂ bring.

I am very privileged to have been given the opportunity to go to General Synod for just a few days this weekend. I will be in Toronto on Sunday and Monday–Monday is the day scheduled for this vote to take place–and I am so anxious about how this will come out, and what aftermath of this is going to look like.

I want to leave you with just a few words, family. Especially those who disagree with me on this issue.

I ask you, I implore of you, I am ready to beg:Â suspend judgement for the sake of love.Â Let us listen.Â Listen to your siblings and family in Christ who are calling you to love. Do not deceive yourselves that you can “love the sinner and hate the sin.” Do not forget Orlando. Do not forget the deaths and poverty and pains of your LGBTQ family. Do not forget that Jesus ate and drank with outcasts and sinners, that the prophets brought revolutionary interpretations of the world that were rejected and ignored in their time.Â We need each other more than we need to agree.Â And it is time to set your judgments aside and choose love.